


Kolme

by ThoseDaysThatWill



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Dallas Stars, M/M, huge piles of fluff, that might get filled in later, there's a big time jump in the middle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 11:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18570295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThoseDaysThatWill/pseuds/ThoseDaysThatWill
Summary: Esa had been in love with him since Jokerit.On April 22, 2019, John scored the OT winner to send the Stars to Round 2 of the Playoffs.





	Kolme

Esa had been in love with him since Jokerit. He was seventeen and the best player on that U20 team. John came in, Swedish, two years older, speaking no Finnish whatsoever, and too good to be there. Everything that Esa would have said were deal-breakers. He wasn’t sure exactly how many games they played together between that team and the one in Vantaa, but it wasn’t many before John was bumped up to the Liiga team and left Esa behind. It was already too late, though. Esa was determined that they’d play side-by-side again someday.

By the time the Texas Stars were asking him to leave Finland, John had already moved on to the _Dallas_ Stars, of course. They’d talked often, both insisting that they needed to practice their English. If Esa had taught himself a little Swedish in his spare time, that was his own business, he never used it in any of the phone calls, though he was tempted to a few times. John had a habit of calling him at what was late to him and very early morning to Esa. Every call started with “Did I wake you up?” to which Esa would always tell him that he had, but it was fine. He’d hear about his game, or whatever other nonsense he wanted to ramble about, until he fell asleep. Esa came to recognize when his breathing changed, and he was out cold. He was tempted to try to his Swedish then, but never had enough courage to do it.

When Esa told him that he was coming to Texas, John tried to convince him to fly into Dallas, while the team was telling him to fly into Austin. A Google search told him that the distance between his new team and Austin was just over 30 km and the distance to Dallas was almost 300 km. But John pointed out that if he flew into Dallas, he’d be willing to drive him down to his new team. A nearly three-hour drive. No way in hell Esa was going to turn _that_ down. John spent most of the drive talking, which Esa didn’t mind in the least. By the time he arrived in Cedar Park, he knew more about the social lives of the Dallas Stars than he did about his own team back home.

In his career, Esa had never been too particular about his jersey number. He liked single digits when he could get them, but it wasn’t a big deal if he couldn’t. So, when John asked him what number he’d be wearing, he shrugged the question off, but John persisted.

“Three, if they have it.” He finally answered, because John wouldn’t drop it. He’d worn that plenty of times, it worked well enough for him.

He shook his head, “You can’t have three.”

Esa glanced at him, but John had his eyes focused on the road. “Okay… four, maybe, or seven?”

“You _can_ have four.” He said with emphasis. “When you come to Dallas, what do you want?”

“Same thing, I guess.”

John shook his head, “You can’t have three. Or four. Most none of the one-digit numbers you can have.”

Esa noticed that he was starting to sound a lot more Swedish, which he only did when he was tired. Since John was driving, he hoped that _wasn’t_ the only time his accent got heavy. “Why is it a big deal?” He asked, curiously.

“When did I said it was?”

Suddenly the lightbulb went off over his head, and Esa turned to look at him, a smile playing on his lips, “John… what number did _you_ wear on this team?” He hadn’t thought about numbers, and if he’d seen John’s in passing, he didn’t remember it. And AHL games weren’t on TV in States, not to mention getting all the way to Finland. He had tried to _listen_ to his games with online radio, but they talked much too fast for him to follow in English.

John didn’t so much as glance at him, “ _Four_. Someone else had—” He cut himself off.

“You got to Dallas before me and you took my three, didn’t you!” It wasn’t a question. He had heard all about John’s games, almost every other night, from him on the phone, but he hadn’t been able to watch even one. It wasn’t worth spending what money he had on that kind of thing, when he needed it for the move.

John’s cheeks pinked, though to be honest, it really didn’t take a lot to make him blush, “Maybe I did.”

“Why? Why not have six?” Esa’s eyes were locked on him, but John still refused to even glance over at him.

His blush spread down his neck, “Because someone has it.”

“Mmhmm. Is that why?” It was Esa’s turn not to drop the subject.

John didn’t answer, but instead turned into a rest area and put the car in park. He just sat for a moment before he turned in the seat to face Esa, his expression serious despite the fact his face could not have been pinker, “I asked for three because it was _yours_.”

Esa’s eyes went wide, “Oh.” It was a stupid thing to say, he knew, but he couldn’t think of anything better. In a few moments, it didn’t matter anyway, because John leaned across the seat and kissed him. After that, he couldn’t think of _anything_.

. . . .

Four seasons later, Esa stood on their home ice with his arms wrapped tightly around the man he loved more than anything else in the world, the man he’d loved for eight years now, as their teammates mobbed them, screaming and shouting. Through all of the highs and the lows, the broken hand and the shuffled partners, the long series of losses and wins that _finally_ got them into the playoffs, they’d never given up on each other. And in that moment, when John was his most excited, his most happy, he’d looked for him and _only_ him. That the rest of them came too didn’t matter as much as the two of them getting their hands on each other. The moment was fast (and loud) but it was something Esa would never forget. Eventually, he had to let go, because there were other teammates that wanted to congratulate him too, and they were in the middle of a mob that was threatening to crush them.

Esa didn’t find him again until the press had their way with everyone of importance and were shoved out of the room. And even then, he didn’t find him, so much as was jumped by him.

He had been claimed by Miro, who wanted to chatter and needed a conversation partner that spoke his language because English was completely beyond him in his excitement. To be honest, even Esa wasn’t sure what he was saying, he was talking so fast and laughing, but since he was expected to just listen and not reply, that worked out fine. It happened often enough, because Roope was always smart enough to duck out fast, and Esa was usually stuck waiting for John to finish with the press.

Esa knew John was there before he even touched him. He always did and it annoyed John to no end. He’d been accused more than once of having been tipped off when he’d ruined various scare attempts. He hadn’t been, he just _knew_ where John was all the time. He couldn’t explain it, he didn’t try to, he just knew. But this time, he let John ‘sneak’ up on him, but he didn’t jump when he felt his arms wrap around his waist. He pressed back against him and smiled.

“Waiting for me?” John asked beside his ear.

Esa laughed, “I always do.” John leaned in and kissed along his neck, earning himself a soft moan, “And _that’s_ why.” John continued to kiss his neck, up to his ear. “I’m not the hero, why am I getting the good treatment?”

John’s voice was soft, beside his ear, “Because I wanted to thank you.”

Esa furrowed his brows at that, turning around to face him, careful to keep his arms just where they were around him. “For _what_? I wasn’t even your assist.”

John smiled, “I couldn’t do _any_ of this without you. Do you understand what you mean to me?”

Esa felt his cheeks get hot, “Hey, save that for when we win the Cup, okay?”

“Okay, okay.” John laughed, “But I have one more thing.”

He couldn’t help the smile, “ _One_ more. Then I get to take our conquering hero home.”

John pulled him closer, “I love you.”

Esa nearly melted at that, just like he did every time he heard it. “I love you.” And this time, he leaned in to kiss him first.


End file.
